Thursday, April 14, 2016

Eternal life - what is it?

When a person dies, do you go wherever you deserve?
Are you in your youth or just the way you died without pain? Also, if we live
to eternity, then I like a comic believe that I would not like it.

The reader's last comment is frustrating and
intriguing because s/he offers no explanation why s/he would not like eternal
life. Below, some reflections on the possible appeal of life eternal follows a
reprise of a previous post, What
does life after death mean?

What
does life after death mean?

Life after deathdoes not and cannot denote a continuation of physical
existence. Many of the atoms in each human body have previously been part of
another human body. Even substituting replacement atoms would result in a
physical body that is not literally identical with a person’s original body.
Additionally, if life after death denotes a continuation of physical existence,
then many people (including the elderly, mentally retarded, physically
handicapped, and severely diseased) would fare poorly, stuck with bodies that
most of us would strongly prefer not to have.

Alternatively, one of my seminary professors,
process theologian Marjorie Suchocki, contended that life after death consisted
of a person living forever in the mind of God. Although that proposal has its
challenges (e.g., how can a person sustain an independent existence?), her
suggestion avoids the difficulties inherent in traditional physical and
spiritualized definitions of life after death.

The Christian scriptures offer little help beyond a
consistent affirmation that there is life after death and that this is a
positive experience. The images and metaphors for life after death, as one
would anticipate, have strong roots in the authors’ historical and cultural
milieu. After all, what other images and metaphors would make sense to an
author or to the author’s audience?

Christian biblical scholars and theologians have
generally supported a dichotomous view of life after death: heaven for God's
people and hell for all others. They sometimes understand hell as death,
because apart from God no life can exist and because the idea of eternal
punishment seems incongruous with a God who is love. A minority of biblical
scholars and theologians, notably including William Barclay as well as the 18th and
19th century Universalists, have argued that God's love so
firmly embraces each person that all receive the gift of eternal life.

Epistemologically, little or no evidence exists for
life after death. Investigators routinely debunk claims of alleged contact
between the living and the dead. The world’s great religions diverge widely in
their teachings about life after death. Hinduism and Buddhism both teach
reincarnation; ultimate liberation in both religions consists of ending an
endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth by entering into unity with the
ultimate. Some Jewish traditions still teach that death marks the end of a
life. Christianity and Islam both affirm life in heaven for the faithful. This lack
of consistency makes drawing a conclusion based on human experience
problematic.

Reflections
on the possible appeal of eternal life

The possibility of eternal life may appeal to
persons in four different ways. First, some persons so enjoy this life, and yet
recognize the possibility for even greater enjoyment in an unlimited future, that
they find the possibility of eternal life very appealing. Second, some persons
experience so much pain and suffering in this life, that the possibility of a
new life, one without pain, suffering, tears, or death has great appeal. Third,
and more broadly, some persons believe that this life rarely if ever provides justice
for the righteous and the wicked, a justice possible only through eternal life.
Fourth, if God's love for people is as great as many believe, then God's love,
which knows no boundaries or limits, can find fulfillment in eternity.

Regardless of why the possibility of eternal life
appeals, I find conventional images of eternal life hugely dissatisfying, e.g.,
strumming a harp while drifting about on a cloud or of unending, never changing
perfection.

Change is essential for me to find something
interesting, enjoyable, and beautiful for the long-term. The prospect of an
eternity of stasis – never-ending, never changing, sameness – feels more like
an eternity of punishment than of blessing. Comedians have long joked about
preferring to party in hell than bask in the glory of heaven, jokes we find
funny because of our aversion to stasis.

Furthermore, I have repeatedly contended in Ethical
Musings that God is dynamic and not static. If there is life after death, I see
no reason to believe that life is unchanging and every reason to expect that it
will represent opportunity for continuing to have new and ever richer experiences.

Alternatively, perhaps one of my seminary
professors, Marjorie Suchocki, is right when she suggests that eternal life
consists of a person's eternally enduring memory in God's mind.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't know what eternal life is, but I can say that having 10,000 years to understand Einstein's mathematics would be very enjoyable. (It would probably take me that long.) And then I could move on to fifty other physicists.

10,000 years is a long time compared to the span of a human lifespan. Ten million years, however, is a relatively short time in the history of the earth or of the cosmos. Ten trillion years - a million times ten million - is a negligible amount of time when measured against eternity. And that is why I raise some of the questions I ask in the post.